Prisoner of War
by godcomplexLoading
Summary: Why they didn't kill her, she never bothered to ask. She just survived. As the war waged on and was lost, she was forgotten, the lost last Waterbender of the South Pole. A story about a prison, its lone prisoner, and the souls who keep her sane. Eventual Zutara, I hesitate to promise.
1. Almost Thought We'd Made It Home

**Summary:** Why they didn't kill her, she never bothered to ask. She just survived. As the war waged on and was lost, she was forgotten, the lost last Waterbender of the South Pole.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own A:TLA. If I did, I would be set for life. Instead, I'm scraping money together to buy chips and selling everything I own for Skyrim.

**Author's Note: **I started this…three years ago. I wrote four paragraphs and never touched it again. So this should be fun, 'cause I also don't remember where the hell I was going with it.

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Almost Thought We'd Made It Home

Katara looked up at the scary man and shivered, pulling herself further back into the corner of the cell. It was dark and she was uncomfortable. It was much hotter than it was at home, and the only ones besides her in the room were the soldiers, who moved in and out of the room almost randomly and only one at a time. But she heard activity outside, a constant stream of footsteps and voices too soft to hear. She could hear the water beating at the sides of the ship, and it always sounded like it was going to break the folded metal like paper. Never before had Katara been afraid of water. The water was almost as loud was the engine. The noise was deafening. The guards seemed used to it, but it scared her. It was so loud and she could _feel _it in her chest, rumbling and moving in circles and circles and circles. It grated on the edge of her mind and kept her from whatever restless sleep she might have been granted.

One of the men was standing over her now, his helmet leaving a demon's shadow on the floor and wall behind her. She whimpered in fright when he reached for her through the door of her makeshift cage, but it was only to put a small tray of food in front of her. Defiant, she didn't touch it, but she looked at it longingly. Her stomach growled treacherously, but a ridiculous and irrational fear kept her from reaching out.

"We won't poison you, girl."

The sudden sound of his voice frightened her, but his words and tone were comforting. She looked up at the guard silently, as if awaiting more approval, but he only towered over her, silence once more. She hesitated, but was emboldened when he reached down and took a bite of the bread on the plate, proving to her there was nothing dangerous about it. After waiting a few minutes and seeing no change in him, she reached forward hesitantly to grab a bite. She wrapped her fingers cautiously around a piece of meat.

_Ow_! It was _hot_!

Her hand jerked back as if bitten. She cradled it against her chest, pulled her knees to her chest, and buried her face in her arms, a fluid and singular sequence. Her hand stung and her tongue tingled with pain that was more imagined. It was burning... She closed her eyes and saw orange, heard screams, and her limbs jerked in response to forces that had ceased to pull on her hours ago. She disappeared into her mind and the shadows wrapped around her, ignoring the guard taking her food or leaving the room or murmuring a temporary farewell.

Her eyelids felt heavy and her throat closed up, but not the slightest whimper escaped her throat. She wouldn't let herself cry, but she was too terrified to even try to put on a brave front.

_What will happen to Mom…? Will she be…okay?_

Memories of what had happened came back to her. After that man had tried to take her mother…Katara had completely lost control. She shook as she remembered her mother's horrified face as her hasty plans fell through and her treachery was revealed with a child's reckless actions. She hugged herself even tighter, if that was possible. Her arms shook. She had thought for sure she was going to die. The man _had_ been about to kill her. His fist was aflame, and his face even more so. Even her mother's body over hers couldn't stop the heat from reaching Katara, reaching inside her and instilling a terror the likes of which she had never felt before. But she wasn't dead. No, her fate was far worse. By some sadistic spirit's choice, Katara was headed for the Fire Nation.

She lowered herself to lie down, staring straight ahead until she was too tired to do that. But when she closed her eyes, they burned as dirt and soot were ground in. She resumed staring, after trying in vain to blink or rub the grime away. She began counting the feet as they paced back and forth in front of her, and paying only distant attention when she was addressed. The days melted to hours and the hours became mere breathless minutes, and every minute became an agonizing eternity.

The rest of the journey was spent in stubborn silence and a perseverance born simply because she had nothing else to do. She didn't know how long that was, but it felt like a long, long time. She was lulled into a trance, staring at the ground in front of her feet blankly, only vaguely aware of the distant threat of water beating against her prison and the menacing roar of the engine that carried her further and further from home. She closed her eyes and tried to dream of home, but her every fantasy was disrupted by the smell of coal and metal. Her dreams were rudely interrupted by bells and shouts. She began to waste away. As the eternities stacked up, she came face to face with the bleak and hopeless reality that she was likely never going to go home again. She tried to spin fantasies of her brother or father or mother coming to save her, but all her daydreams ended in flames.

There was nothing especially memorable about the journey to the port. In fact, the only reason she knew where she was going was because her guard had a habit of…rambling. She noted later, though, that her food stopped burning, and years later, she would recognize the guard that left her food out before giving it to her so that it wasn't hot when she got it. It wouldn't be the last time that kindness would reach her soon-to-be-frozen heart, and perhaps that was why her story was set to end the way it was.

The first step off the ship was one Katara would remember until her very last breath. She remembered what it'd looked like when she'd boarded: she had been surrounded by charred white and the smell of burning flesh, the smell of her family's wails echoing in her ears. She remembered it vividly, and her feet stumbled before she got to the door. A rough hand hauled her up, and she whimpered softly as her little limbs were forced to carry the weight of the heavy chains dragging her down. Her legs shook and wobbled, trying to dance to an ocean's rhythm that no longer beat beneath her. She was supported between the two guards, one of whom had a lighter hand than the other.

There was a mighty creak as the doors swung open again and Katara's head split in half from the noise combined with the blinding light that shone directly onto her face. They allowed her to lift her hands and shield her face, which burned immediately in the sun. She sucked in her breath and her exhale came in ragged coughs. The _air_ was different! What had once tasted like ocean and ice now tasted of soot and spicy foods, and the _air_ burned her _lungs_. The world she saw was different; everything was red and everything was wood…what sense did that make? People milled passed slowly with seemingly nothing to do, dressed in russet reds and deep browns and faded dusty blacks.

_This land is poisonous_, she decided, as the coughs subsided and the guards began her trek down. People stared at her as she descended towards her next prison, whispering and pointing at the broken creature, the chained animal, the little girl, the last Water Bender.

"It's not as bad as it looks. Really," her guard murmured as he helped her. Before the doors closed, she imagined a smile in his voice. But his next sentence was grim and apologetic and heavy with promises of anguish to come. "Welcome to the Fire Nation."


	2. Don't You Wanna Feel Like a Rebel

**Summary:** Why they didn't kill her, she never bothered to ask. She just survived. As the war waged on and was lost, she was forgotten, the lost last Waterbender of the South Pole.

**Author's Note:** A shorter chapter, and a chapter I'm not fond of, but introducing the other two protagonists of the story!

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Don't You Wanna Feel Like a Rebel

"C'mon, Zuzu, don't be such a wimp!" The voice was anything but affectionate and it was the only sign of his sister's passage. The curtains lining the wall rippled, as if a breeze had merely blown through from the open window at the end of the hall. Even though she'd spoken aloud, it'd take a master to know where she was…and Zuko was no master. He felt utterly lost in this world that was comprised entirely of the red wall to his right and the orange curtain to his left. On the horizon was the light at the end of the tunnel, the tan of his sister's hand as she darted ahead of him with energetic glee.

"Wait…_wait_!" he whispered loudly, trying and failing to keep his voice down. In sharp contrast to his sister's nigh invisible trail, the curtains billowed behind Zuko like the sails of a great sailboat braving the sea during a summer storm. His little feet, tipped with gold, peeked out at the world as he ran headlong after his sister in a laughable attempt at imitation. Every now and then, there'd be a break in the curtain and you'd see him, his eyes wide and guilty, his little chest heaving, but still every bit in the adventure as she was.

"Wait." Azula stopped without any further warning and Zuko tripped over himself in his attempt to stop without running into her. She was progressing _much _faster in their fighting classes than he was, so he knew that running into her would be a _very_ bad idea. She turned on her heel with another barely visible swish, a grin spreading over her face that didn't seem entirely human. "We're here."

With that announcement, she turned back around and knelt down, creeping forward carefully. She'd been planning this, he could tell. Her little act about this being a spontaneous and fun sibling-bond adventure was all a sham…she probably just dragged him along so she's have someone to blame this whole thing on if things went bad.

Pouting slightly at the thought, Zuko knelt too, suddenly aware that what had once been plush carpet beneath their feet was now cold stone that was wet and a little bit sticky. He looked up and saw over her shoulder a door, metal and barred, with two guards standing on either side. The hall was so silent that he was certain the guards would hear his heart pounding, but they didn't move. He opened his mouth to ask Azula what they were here for, but loud footsteps began to approach at a frighteningly close distance and he settled for a horrified squeak, pressing himself against the wall and waiting for the guard to pass. He shifted closer to Azula, though he wasn't entirely certain that she would save him too if they were to get caught.

"Hold on…" Azula's voice was barely more than a whisper. "Hold on…" Her hand was slightly raised, and he noticed for the first time the firecracker in her hand. Zuko scooted closer to her, partly out of terror and partly out of curiosity.

A silent exchange was passed and a metal hinge creaked and without warning Azula's arm flashed out. She almost smashed his nose as she sent the lit firecracker flying across the room. It blazed into a corridor and it took the guards with it.

"Now!" she hissed. She grabbed his hand and almost pulled his arm out of his socket as she flew forward. She leapt over the dropped tray that he stepped clumsily all over. Zuko barely had time to realize where they were before they were inside and Azula pulled him behind another curtain. This one was faded brown and was much more dusty and dirty, and he tried his best not to sneeze as they waited breathless for the guards to start shouting. Zuko could already hear the scoldings and see his father's face and he hoped Azula had a good excuse planed this time. His life flashed before his eyes as he screwed his eyes shut tight and waited.

But there were no shouts. There was some commotion, but it seemed like only seconds passed before the door was slammed shut and gruff voices were heard from the other side. But Azula still didn't let him go, her nails digging into his skin and her fingers no doubt leaving bruises. Her fingertips were hot.

"Don't…move…" she whispered in his ear, and there was more venom in those words than in a thousand snake bites.

They just stood there. Zuko almost jumped out of his skin with every clatter or rustle, but eventually, those stopped. Silence settled in as neither siblings moved, wary and alert.

Zuko sneezed.

"Geez, way to ruin it!" Azula smacked the back of his head in passing as she pulled herself out of the curtains, brushing herself off with all the presumption of a queen. "Well then…let's look around! Gotta be _something_ around here!" But even as she spoke, she was on a beeline. Azula wouldn't come here if there wasn't something she wanted, and so Zuko just trailed silently after her. Whatever she wanted to see, it must have been pretty amazing.

The room she'd snuck them into was long and cold and the walls were lined with cells. They were in the dungeon...? Did they have a dungeon...? Zuko didn't like it. Prisoners stared out at the siblings with blank and hopeless and sometimes deranged eyes, and he sped up to keep as close to Azula as possible. Every now and then, a torch flickered, but for the most part, the room was dim and damp. It was really creepy. He stopped at an empty cell, staring at the very back, where movement was barely visible through the darkness. His skin crawled but he couldn't tear his eyes away, wondering if that tiny thing was a rat or a person.

"Whoa….Zuko, come look at this!"

_She found it._ Zuko didn't really know what she had dragged him here to find, but if it was anything like their last few adventures, he really really didn't want to know. But he knew better than to deny her, so Zuko tore his gaze away from the moving shadows and joined her. She had dragged him out of bed for this.

"I hear Father talking about a prisoner they brought back from the South Pole…a _water_bender. I thought maybe it'd be a big warrior or something…" She was muttering, her back to him. She paid him no attention as he approached, her hands on her hips in a childish and fitting imitation of stern disappointment. "I gotta say, this isn't what I expected." Her voice had lost its excited spark.

Zuko followed her gaze to look into the cell and had to stop himself from crying out. Why, he didn't know. She wasn't scary, she wasn't covered in blood…she was just…_unexpected_.

"She's…a little girl…" he whispered, stepping closer to Azula. His hands shook as he pressed them against his legs, suddenly feeling chilly. For some reason, his stomach twisted at the sight of the waterbender in a manner unlike any of the other prisoners or shadows.

She was sleeping, curled up with her arms wrapped around her middle. Her chest rose and fell slowly, and her face was twisted as she lost herself in what was undoubtedly a nightmare. He thought he heard a whimper, but it could just have been the chink of the chains around her wrists.

Zuko couldn't stop staring. He'd seen some of the other prisoners, but they were all old and raving and scary. This girl, though…she looked kinda nice. He had never seen a Water Bender up close before. He found himself, rather foolishly, looking for some frightening element…claws, a painted face, tribal scars, something to make her savage. But there was nothing. She looked so utterly normal that it made his heart pound to see her, her wrists weighed down by huge chains. She looked a little bit younger than him, with her hair cut short like his, and her skin was darker and her features were a bit broader… It made him uncomfortable to see her, but he couldn't look away.

"Well, this is boring. I'm gonna go see if that old guy who thinks he's a dragon moose is still here."

Zuko barely noticed his sister's departure, still entranced by the girl. He took a step closer, one of his hands grabbing the cold metal bars. The girl…she was so pretty! His heart pounded in his chest as he stared at her. She looked nothing like the other girls around the palace or in the city and he found himself willing her to wake up so he could see what color her eyes were. It'd be strange, he thought, if they were gold.

He made a noise, the smallest noise in the back of his throat, and she stirred. Terrified, Zuko turned and ran.


End file.
